A 40,000 Foot View of Obamacare
“How can the government make us buy health insurance? What gives them that right?”
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Avoiding the “R” Word in Health Policy Debates
A couple of years ago I was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago, to discuss the morality of whether physicians should ration care from their patients.
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It's We, the Public, Who Are "Flip Floppers"
The failure of health care reform does not rest solely at the president’s feet. Instead, we, the general public, are also to blame…(Read the rest and view comments at Scientocracy)
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When Harry and Louise Met Hillary
As part of the Duke undergraduate course I teach on health care policy, I recently prepared a lecture on Bill Clinton’s ultimately futile efforts to reform the US health care system early in his first term of office, back in 1993. This preparation gave me an excuse to read Theda Skocpol’s wonderful book, Boomerang.
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150,000 Walt Disney Employees Denied Mental Health Coverage – A Headline from the Future
Newswire Services, April 11, 2015: Breaking News
Since purchasing the Walt Disney Company six months ago, the Church of Scientologyhas been slowly remaking that venerable institution, in an effort to promote their ambitious religious mission. In the pipeline are an unprecedented number of science fiction films and John Travolta/Tom Cruise buddy movies, changes that have been surprisingly popular among movie fans.
But now the church is making a change that is not so popular. It has decided that Disney employees will no longer receive insurance coverage for psychiatric care or any medications used to treat mental illness: “Psychiatrists are the enemy of the people,” stated Church spokesperson Walter McGee. “The church opposes their brutal, inhumane treatments and refuses to pay for such services because they collide with our religious beliefs.”
Many Disney employees are up in arms over this decision. But the church is unrelenting in its position: “If people want to receive devil-care, they can either pay their own money or find a job somewhere else,” said McGee.
Critics blame the situation on a decision made by President Obama in February of 2012. Early that month, he had announced regulations that would require health insurance companies to cover contraception, with exceptions for churches that oppose birth control but not for larger church run organizations such as hospitals or universities. The Roman Catholic Church cried foul, claiming that their religious freedom was being violated. In response to pressure, the Obama administration quickly backed off on its policy, broadening the religious exception to any church owned business that was run as part of the church’s broader religious mission.
That shift in policy opened an opportunity for religious organizations to carve a broader set of services out of their health insurance plans. The Jehovah’s Witnesses had gained ownership of Wal-Mart in late 2013, and soon employees of that company (at least the ones who get health insurance) no longer received coverage for blood transfusions. An Orthodox Jewish organization became majority owners of Ace Hardware in early 2014, and now employees of that company no longer receive insurance coverage for insulin products that are derived from pork.
The Church of Scientology is undeterred by critics who claim that treatments like antipsychotic medications and antidepressants ought to be part of any basic health insurance plan. “America is the land of religious freedom,” he explains “a place where the government has no right to stand between a church and its employees.”
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Most provocative sentence of the week?
Whatever you think of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive pill that the Obama administration decided to keep behind pharmacy counters rather than let women and girls buy it OTC, you have to admit that the New England Journal authors wrote a heck of a provocative sentence, after reviewing the number of scientific committees that had deemed the medication safe. (The article is by Wood, Drazen and Greene, from January 12.) After pointing out that adolescent girls can already buy lethal doses of Tylenol OTC without any questions asked, and after explaining that the only known risks of Plan B are nausea and delayed menses, they land a hard punch right on the jaw of the Obama administration:
“Any objective review makes it clear that Plan B is more dangerous to politicians than to adolescent girls.”
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Federalizing Medicaid
Here is a new post I’ve got up at the Health Care Cost Monitor, in which I try to convince folks that even Republicans should be in favor of federalizing Medicaid. I’d love your feedback, as I’m still developing this idea. -
All I want from Health Care is My Two Front Teeth
Not looking my best…but here is a blog post I wrote for the Hastings Center, in which I try to get to the root, so to speak, of an often overlooked issue: cutting dental coverage when trying to lower the cost of health care.
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When Medicaid doesn't pay
Here is a link to a Marketplace report that discusses the Obama administration’s efforts to keep states from trimming their Medicaid budgets by cutting doctor payments, to the point where patients have insurance but no doctors would be willing to care for them. I am quoted early on, the first broadcast in which I have been able to spout the phrase “dirty, naughty.” -
How not to let a crisis go to waste
Here is a blog post I wrote for the Hastings Center, laying out some hopeful thoughts about how we can use Medicaid crises, which are occurring in so many states right now, to figure out how to control health care costs.
